"No bombs there were," exclaimed Anna confidently.
"Chemicals, yes -- bombs, no."

"You are mistaken, Anna," said Mrs. Guthrie
quietly. She rose from the bench on which she had
been sitting, and drew up the chair opposite to Anna.
"There were certainly bombs found in your room. It
is a mercy they did not explode; if they had done, we
should all have been killed!"

Anna stared at her in dumb astonishment. "Herr
Gott!" she exclaimed. "No one has told me that, gracious
lady. Again and again they have asked me questions
they should not -- questions I to answer promised
not. To you, speak I will----"

Anna looked round, as if to satisfy herself that they
were indeed alone, and Mrs. Guthrie suddenly grew
afraid. Was poor old Anna going to reveal something
of a very serious self-incriminating kind?

"It was Willi!" exclaimed the old woman at last.
She now spoke in a whisper, and in German. "It was
to Willi that I gave my promise to say nothing. You
see, gracious lady, it was a friend of Willi's who was
making a chemical invention. It was he who left these
goods with me. I will now confess" -- she began to
sob bitterly -- "I will now confess that I did keep it a
secret from the gracious lady that these parcels had
been confided to me. But the bedroom was mine. You
know, gracious lady, how often you said to me, 'I
should have liked you to have a nicer bedroom, Anna -- but
still, it is your room, so I hope you make it as comfortable
as you can.' As it was my room, gracious
lady, it concerned no one what I kept there."

"A friend of Willi's?" repeated Mrs. Guthrie incredulously.
"But I don't understand -- Willi is in Berlin.

[[333]]

p332 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p333w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p334

v?